Demanding that the horse comply to their balance, when a rider is perhaps 15-20% of a horse’s weight, and it is he, the horse, who does the majority of the work. Today, I still ride in independent balance and I still adapt to the horse beneath me as he learns to carry himself and a rider on his
back. As he learns to travel laterally or do changes, or pirouettes and more, I still strive to help my horse by placing my weight, sometimes in an exaggerated manner, where it helps him most.
As the horse understands better and better what is asked of him and develops the strength to deliver the work confidently, I return to a more traditional position though my seat is always alive.
On a young horse, I learned to compromise, not too expect
too much. If I asked for a halt, I accepted it took a few steps until my horse could stop its momentum and stay in balance. As he became more balanced, he was able to stop sooner and sooner until he could stop when I asked. It takes time for a young or untrained horse to learn a new balance and the more we help him, the sooner he will succeed.
On a working horse, the riding’s first priority is always to help the horse, and so should it be on any horse, in any discipline.
At fourteen, I went to work for the Domecq family on their
property in Andalusia. There, I learned to ride Rejoneo but also Doma a la Vaquera and Acoso y derribo alongside Álvaro Domecq Romero. Soon enough, I was training his horses for Doma a la Vaquera and Rejoneo and had three or four horses to work with every day.
This kind of work requires that a horse knows how to do
travers, shoulder-in, half pass, single and multiple pirouettes, flying change, piaffe, passage and Spanish walk. While all these movements are present in dressage, three things are different:
First, as we carry a pole, we have the reins in one hand not two. Second, this work includes some speed not found in dressage, and third the repetition of the movements and the configuration of the figures we create are different.
For example, working with cattle or bulls, a rider and horse may have to spin three or four times in a series of tight pirouettes and move out at warp speed only to do a half-pass to the left, one to the right, do a flying change and find themselves doing several spins again only in the opposite direction.
By comparison, in dressage, the same movements feel as though they are happening in slow motion. This is the second and most important lesson I learned from this work. The more balanced and able to carry himself at high speed not block him but assist him in his work, the more he will trust his rider. Beyond developing fit, supple, athletic horses this work taught me that there is an intimate
relationship between confidence and balance. It is a lesson that applies to all horses, not just working equitation ones.
50 / Sport and Trail Magazine
Developing a strong, supple horse means he can carry himself and the rider is free to use his body and hands as he needs whether it is to close a gate or volte underneath a garrocha pole.